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Topic: Category 4 Hurricane Irma (Read 14941 times)

I tried the lighter thing as that is what I expected it to do as well. It wont release gas without power apparently Oh well, we got power about 1430 so all is good. Thankfully we are off one of the main feeders for that damn school they built in the neighborhood and we had no lines down on our street after we moved two pine trees resting on the lines first thing Monday morning(neighbor is a lineman and he wanted to secure our street before he left to go to work). They stopped doing line work once they reached the school and went off to a higher priority leaving about half the neighborhood of 3000 homes still without power.

Just got power restored early this morning. Papayas and nanas took a beating, gusts up to 90mph. They listed pretty far and I had to prune off the damaged branches, upright them and tie them to the fence for now. Need a long term way to keep them straight.

I had to up-right most of my annonas, they're still pretty young so hopefully they'll recover.I staked them up with metal fence posting hammered into my limestone soil.It looks like my young Dream is drying up so that will be another casualty. I'll need to replace it with a atemoya locally, maybe PPC

I had to up-right most of my annonas, they're still pretty young so hopefully they'll recover.I staked them up with metal fence posting hammered into my limestone soil.It looks like my young Dream is drying up so that will be another casualty. I'll need to replace it with a atemoya locally, maybe PPC

Silver liningThe Red Jabo is finally flowering

Glad you fared well.You didn't mention the soursop, assume it was ok too.

I had to up-right most of my annonas, they're still pretty young so hopefully they'll recover.I staked them up with metal fence posting hammered into my limestone soil.It looks like my young Dream is drying up so that will be another casualty. I'll need to replace it with a atemoya locally, maybe PPC

Silver liningThe Red Jabo is finally flowering

Glad you fared well.You didn't mention the soursop, assume it was ok too.

Thanks,The sour sop toppled and definitely has some root damage like the other annonas.I hoping since they are relatively small they have time to rebound Some of the leaves are drying up on the sour sop, so I have to wait and see the extent of the die back

My coconut cream did the exact thing, I also lost a lychee that snapped, had to reset a few mango and peach that were leaning, tropic beauty peach almost fell over. What I came away with from Irma, the trees that were trimmed fared better than those I let go to get bigger.

Most all younger trees leaning or down here at my place in Bokeelia. Had to right them and hoping most pull through. All mature trees are fine, can't even tell they went thru a storm. 15 mature coconut palms took a beating but standing strong. Santols weren't / aren't happy... Lost 5 out of 6 papaya, some bananas, and most sugar canes. Garage saved the nursery. No electricity yet but have water. Overall dodged a bullet here!!

Still no power here. One tree at the end of the block is being held up by the power line. My street is the only one in the neighborhood without power. Power company basically said it is only affecting 14 homes so fuck off. We are at the end of the list to get fixed.

Still no power here. One tree at the end of the block is being held up by the power line. My street is the only one in the neighborhood without power. Power company basically said it is only affecting 14 homes so fuck off. We are at the end of the list to get fixed.

If I was forced to live in areas where we get hurricanes like this, I would build it out of structural CMU/Concrete only with 10 feet raised foundation as well. even then windows could blow up under such pressure.

I have always wondered why in the US many (the majority?) houses are built with wood or light materials even though you have many natural risks (hurricanes, tornadoes). In my country, even with the low revenues/habitant all the houses are built with concrete (and we don't have extreme climatic events like yours). Is it cost? or is there other advantages of light buildings?

Many modern homes use cement blocks for outer walls, and wood for roof, there is some advantages to this, one is of course cost, but the other is insulation. most homes use central air-conditioning, we use gypsum board instead of mortar to cover the inside walls, we put insulation between the two. the steep roof, ( attic ) is also filled with insulation, this saves a lot on heating and cooling costs.

Also should state that in Earthquake prone areas, a wood roof is somewhat safer. I mention this because here in the DR. we use all cement everything, walls, and ceilings, roofs are just poured cement, no insulation, so if you put your hand on the ceiling on a sunny day you can feel the heat. in an Earthquake these flat slabs, can fall on you. but of course the benefit is, being strong against winds.

After Andrew, I was working down in Homestead, and noticed complete neighborhoods, mostly destroyed, but then right next to it you see another neighborhood, almost untouched. why? construction code, and techniques. its not so much whether the roof is wood or not, but how it is built. look at Key West , they got the brunt of the storm, and you can see many wooden homes intact, not all wooden homes are created equally.

Key West was on the good side (west) of the eye with minimal surge and lower winds than the keys on the bad side of the eye.

Just wanted to report our farm got the worst of Irma and it has destroyed so much vegetation in Naples. 150mph wind direct hit from east eyewall. House made it through with some minor soffit and roof shingle repair. Total damage to 300 newly planted fruit trees remains to be seen. Rolling up the blinds and watching this storm through impact windows during the daytime was an experience.

Wednesday night, and still no power in large swaths of Pinellas. I lost a couple of avocados - fruit, not trees. Some of the mango trees got a bit pruned, but overall not bad.The big golden poinciana put up a good fight. Lost a lot of small branches, but the big ones held. Came down to a couple hours of yard raking and general cleanup. Windows held, as did the roof.Overall, we were pretty lucky.

In Western Palm Beach County, I feel we missed a bullet with Irma striking the west coast, instead of the east coast. Windspeeds upto about 80 MPH where I was. No roof damage, no shingle damage. I have Miami-Dade rated shutters, which are pretty tough.

A few banana plants fell over. A longan and lime tree fell over. I feel fortunate and am thankful for the minimal damage for such a powerful storm. I was waiting until I had power, before uprighting the trees so that I could water the trees. Just got power back today.

I purchase the lot next to me and planted it out over the last 1.5 years. Overall extremely lucky for 90+ winds +gusts .

1 absolute casualty in a snapped sugar apple. 1 probable casualty in a star fruit. Plenty of tree that needed straightening stomping and staking and one large mango that needs heavy staking to correct a lean. But all in all super lucky and grateful for 50 trees and such light correction needed

Some one just told me that folks in a disaster area don't have to pay there mortgage for 3 Month.

Does any one has more info on this ?

Thanks Ed

I heard this on the radio the other day too.I think there might be some paper work involved and it depends on the type of mortgage.Most importantly however is you still need to come up with 3 months worth of payments.So its more like deferred not waived.(I'm sure I'm missing details, just relating what i remember)